Analysis of absorption performances of anechoic layers with steel plate backing

Rubber layers with air-filled cavities or local resonance scatters can be used as anechoic coatings. A lot of researches have focused on the absorption mechanism of the anechoic coatings. As the anechoic coatings are bonded to the hull of submarine, the vibration of the hull should not be neglected when the analysis of the absorption characters is carried out. Therefore, it is more reasonable to treat the anechoic coating and the backing as a whole when the acoustic performance is analyzed. Considering the effects of the steel plate backing, the sound absorption performances on different models of anechoic coatings are investigated in this paper. The Finite Element Method is used to illustrate the vibrational behaviors of the anechoic coatings under the steel backings by which the displacement contours is obtained for analysis. The theoretical results show that an absorption peak is induced by the resonance of the steel slab and rubber layer. At the frequency of this absorption peak, the steel plate and the coating vibrates longitudinally like a mass-spring system in which the steel slab serves for mass and the coating layer is the spring. To illuminate the effects of the steel slab backing on the acoustic absorption, the thicknesses of the steel slab and the anechoic layer are discussed. Finally, an experiment is performed and the results show a good agreement with the theoretical analysis.